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It belongs to a 22-year-old British Royal Air Force pilot captain who found his final resting place in Montgomery nearly 75 years ago.

There were less headstones then. Now the decades-old cemetery is full of graves from wars and days gone by. It overlooks the city of Montgomery at its highest point. It is here that a special area is dedicated to officers like World War pilot officer Ronald Mackenzie whose stone bears the endearing epitaph.

His plot was visited by his family who traveled from England for the first time on Sunday to attend the special remembrance ceremony just two days after Veterans Day.

MacKenzie who was killed in a head on collision while training with other English and French pilots at Maxwell Air Force Base on Nov. 19, 1942. MacKenzie, 22, was one of 98 flight cadets who were memorialized.

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The British and French pilots who died while training at Maxwell and Gunter during WWII were remembered Sunday at Oakwood Cemetery.(Photo: Rebecca Burylo/ Advertiser)

Patricia Palmer never met her uncle MacKenzie. She was born a few years after the war had ended, but the memories and the stories handed down to her of her uncle and other relatives who served never did. MacKenzie was the youngest of three brothers who all served in the war and are now all deceased.

She stooped in front of the stone, her hand resting on top, to place in the flower bed a bright red paper poppy, a reminder to the British of their fallen soldiers. She is the first of her family to visit her uncle's grave site.

"It has been an emotional day," Palmer said. "Because he died out here, his parents, my grandparents were not able to attend the funeral. Nobody could attend his funeral because war was on.

"It was important to see where he is buried for our family."

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Patricia Palmer traveled from her home in England to attend the ceremony that remembered the British and French pilots who died while training at Maxwell and Gunter during WWII Sunday at Oakwood Cemetery.(Photo: Rebecca Burylo/ Advertiser)

Every year, British Royal Air Force, French and Canadian officers studying at Air University at Maxwell take the Sunday next to Veterans Day to honor their fallen comrades who died in Montgomery during flight training between 1941 and 1943.

Senior British officer, Group Captain Shaun Harvey, RAF, opened up the ceremony. He and representatives from the French air force, Maxwell and the local community stood in front of the Cross of Sacrifice, which is situated among the grave stones of 78 RAF airmen and 20 French airmen.

Representative of the Royal Air Force, the French Air Force, the United States Air Force and the Montgomery Garden Club, which maintains the grave site seasonal flowers, each placed a wreath at the foot of the Cross of Sacrifice.

Between 1940 and 1941, the RAF lacked the facilities, airfields and flight instructors to train new pilots because of ongoing combat operations against Germany. In March 1941, Lt. Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold, chief of the Army Air Forces, offered to train up to 4,000 RAF flight cadets annually in flight schools of the Southeast Air Corps Training Center, headquartered at Maxwell Field.

Patricia Palmer traveled from her home in England to attend the ceremony that remembered the British and French pilots who died while training at Maxwell and Gunter during WWII Sunday at Oakwood Cemetery. Rebecca Burylo/ Advertiser

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Maxwell's historian, Robert Kane, Ph.D. has finished extensive research that chronicles the history of the individual pilots who trained at Maxwell and Gunter and the challenges they faced. His findings have been released in the book "So Far From Home," which is available through New South Books in Montgomery.

Kane was able to reach out to Palmer and tell her what had happened to her uncle all these years later. He found the accident reports filed at the base's Air Force Research Agency. It turns out MacKenzie was helping train a younger cadet on a maneuver, ran into some trouble and turned to land. Another trainee took off on a solo flight at the same time and they collided midair.

He sent Palmer the accident report and invited her to the ceremony. Researching history is one thing. Connecting history on a personal level is one of the greatest joys of his work Kane said.

"This is the kinds of thing I love to do," Kane said. "It's these personal connections. I write about Air University history, but when someone asks and I am able to touch them personally through history that's what I really like doing."